Let me start from the beginning. About 9 months ago now my mom was having issues with her electronics so she found someone who “fixed” computers , phones and iPods. She gave the man her phone my sisters phone and my sisters iPod ( I believe each electronic had their own each individual issue I believe the iPod wouldn’t turn on but instead insist my sister plug it in and get iTunes , I think my moms phone had a cracked screen, and the computer was frozen at the start screen) anyway so she gave this guy everything to fix . He fixed everything with two days . My sisters phone then started freezing so my mom gave it to the guy to take a look he fixed the issue . Then strange things started to happen with my moms phone little things but strange, she was finding pictures of herself taken by her phone that she didn’t take. Now when she initially told me about it I thought maybe she was just accidentally taking them, then she started getting really weird and disgusting pictures sent to her email mainly pornography involving animals now what made it clear that it wasn’t just some sick as spam is that these pictures were being sent by her other email that she wasn’t logged into on the gmail app it was sent by a older gmail that she once had on the app to her current gmail she had on the app. Then my sisters phone was also doing unusual things (she’s 11) one day her phone was on the table she was not by it the phone unlocked and the camera was opened and started to record it only did this for maybe 15 seconds . Then it locked . When she unlocked the phone she checked for running apps in the background. None had been running. Later on my mom received a call from Kansas when she answered it was a man asking her to please stop sending him pictures, my mom obviously confused asked him what he was talking about and he explained that he had been getting pictures of a girl who looked very young he said he hadn’t received any inappropriate ones but just random pictures. She told him that she had not been sending pictures of anyone off of her phone he then read the number he just called off and the number in his text that had been sending them . This is when it gets really weird my sisters phone number is the number he read but when he called the number it was somehow forwarded to my moms phone. They each have different phone companies my mom has At&T my sister has Verizon. The other electronics that he fixed didn’t seem to be doing anything crazy. Just the phones. She decided to call the guy to see if he knew what was happening . He said that the phones might need updated and sometimes if they aren’t updated when they should be they do strange things and the pictures may just be spam that just happened the same time and the phone call may just be a issue with the towers. Now I a district manager of a cellphone company know that he fed her a bunch of bullshit and it’s not very clear that he has hacked the phones . ( if you’re wondering why she just didn’t allow me to fix the phones , well I was going to make a trip down during the weekend but she decided she would allow this guy to fix them instead . She’s a impatient woman) so I informed her he was full of shit and it’s sounding like he is cyber stalking through your phones . So , I go to my moms I take the phones , I soft reset them, then I hard reset them, I make new gmails , I also download Lookout(because of my job I got the premium version free) I do a scan , I make sure everything is just like new , I have them make new social media accounts I tell them to not connect them to any unsecured WiFi and to change the WiFi password they do that. I also tell them not to plug the phones into the computer for any reason and I took my sister iPod to a Apple store the next day and have it reset fixed and that’s that only thing left is the computer. The computer all of a sudden won’t turn on so I I said just get rid of it they didn’t use it anyway. Everything is fine for a few months then my sisters phone starts having issues again, she decided she was going to ignore the “don’t use the old gmail anymore” and signed in and boom everything gets weird again. Then shortly after my moms phone starts again. I’m assuming once she logged back into the gmail and it recovered what she had on her phone before that put the hacker back in business and sense she was connected to the WiFi along with my moms phone it just happened all over . I thought I could fix them again, this time every type of reset I attempted to do was canceled as soon as it started on both phones . Even though I figured the phone companies wouldn’t be able to do anything I called anyway the only solution they had was get new phones and/or they sent a email about how you can avoid a virus on your phone. I’ve never had any issue with my iPhone, and I’ve been connected to the WiFi just like them. So I’m thinking what he did is something that can only be done if he physically has the phone to do it, or he just can’t get through iPhones security, I’m really stumped he is remotely controlling their phones . Last week my mom had a black box with a text pop up on her home screen that read “ I see u” . Her camera then turned on. The simple solution would be to get new phones but there seems to also be the risk of who knows if he’s hacked into the smart tv or any other Android electronics because androids seem to be the easiest for him , and I suppose androids aren’t as secure as some other systems . So I would like to try to get rid of the hacker in the old phones permanently and go from there with the other devices but I’m lost for ideas

Turn off every single device, and take them to their original stores to get reset or possibly reflashed with the original ROM. And when I say turn them off, I mean legitimately take the battery out and put the device + battery in a bag.

Then, find a computer that isn't compromised (internet cafe?) and change all the passwords to everything.

If you want to fix it: If possible erase the phones through a Google account. I have a few ways:

1. Recovery menu reset
2. Go in factory mode and select 'clear eMMC' (the phone might know it was reset)
3. Find a way to get the original software/ROM, use the correct tool to flash it.

Illustrious

OK...there's only a couple of relevant sentences in there.
Primarily..."having issues with her electronics so she found someone who “fixed” computers , phones and iPods."

I would suggest you fixing it, but I won't.Turn them off. Now. All of them.
Take it back to whatever store you bought it from, and have them wipe the actual phone and return the system to original factory condition.
Do this with ALL phones and devices you have.

Secondly...change the passwords on ALL your online resources and websites. All of them. From a know uncompromised system.

Distinguished

Turn off every single device, and take them to their original stores to get reset or possibly reflashed with the original ROM. And when I say turn them off, I mean legitimately take the battery out and put the device + battery in a bag.

Then, find a computer that isn't compromised (internet cafe?) and change all the passwords to everything.

If you want to fix it: If possible erase the phones through a Google account. I have a few ways:

1. Recovery menu reset
2. Go in factory mode and select 'clear eMMC' (the phone might know it was reset)
3. Find a way to get the original software/ROM, use the correct tool to flash it.

Share this page

About us

Our community has been around for many years and pride ourselves on offering unbiased, critical discussion among people of all different backgrounds. We are working every day to make sure our community is one of the best.